University Housing Fires (2007-2009)
T opical F ire r eporT S erieSVolume 12, Issue 9 / August 2011University Housing Fires (2007-2009)These topical reports are designed toexplore facets of the U.S. fire problem asdepicted through data collected in the U.S.Fire Administration’s (USFA’s) NationalFire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS).Each topical report briefly addresses thenature of the specific fire or fire-relatedtopic, highlights important findings fromthe data, and may suggest other resourcesto consider for further information. Alsoincluded are recent examples of fire incidents that demonstrate some of the issuesaddressed in the report or that put thereport topic in context.Findings An estimated 3,800 university housing fires occur each year in the United States. Eighty-eight percent of university housing fires are cooking fires. Small, confined cookingfires account for 81 percent of university housing fires. However, cooking fires comprise only9 percent of nonconfined university housing fires. University housing fires occur most frequently in the late summer and fall, peaking inSeptember at 12 percent. Fires in September, October, and November account for 33percent of all fires throughout the year. The leading causes of nonconfined university housing fires are intentional (16 percent), otherunintentional or careless actions (12 percent), open flame (11 percent), and other heat (10percent). Smoke alarms were present in 85 percent of nonconfined fires in occupied universityhousing.From 2007 to 2009, an estimated 3,800 university housing fires occurred in the United States each year. Thesefires account for approximately 1 percent of total residential building fires responded to by fire departments acrossthe United States.1, 2, 3 University housing fires resulted ina yearly average of 0 deaths, 25 injuries, and 9 million inproperty loss.This topical report addresses the characteristics of university housing fires reported to the National Fire IncidentReporting System (NFIRS) between 2007 and 2009 and isan update to the topical report, University Housing Fires (Volume10, Issue 1, released June 2010). In NFIRS, university housing fires are considered to be fires in college and universityresidential buildings that include dormitories and fraternityand sorority houses.The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)reports an increase in dormitory and university housing fires in recent years. The number of university anddormitory housing fires increased from 1,800 per year inthe late 1990s to 3,300 per year in 2005.4 Students bringmore items from home to make their college stays morecomfortable, including high-powered electrical equipmentand appliances. However, the equipment can be dangerous when used improperly or left unsupervised, especiallyin dormitory rooms. The CPSC reported that fires aremore common during the evenings and weekends whenmost students are in residence halls. Most of the fires arecooking-related (hot plates, microwaves, portable grills,etc.), but the majority of deaths occur in bedrooms.5 Itshould be noted, however, that the 1990’s university housing estimates are based on NFIRS Version 4.1 data, withrecent estimates based on NFIRS Version 5.0 data. Thereare substantial differences between the two data collectionsystems, and as a result, the estimates from the two systemsmay not be comparable. Because the two NFIRS data collection systems captured the data differently, the increase inuniversity housing fires shown by CPSC may not necessarilyreflect a true trend change.In a joint statement in 2007, the CPSC, the U.S. FireAdministration (USFA), the National Fire ProtectionAssociation (NFPA), and the University of Maryland’s FireMarshal urged students, families, and school administrators across the Nation to be aware of the fire hazards andto take precautions.6 In addition, the Higher EducationOpportunity Act, passed by Congress in 2008, now requiresuniversities and colleges to publish an annual fire safetyreport and maintain a fire reporting log. As part of this law,institutions must provide a description of each oncampushousing fire safety policy and sprinkler system as well asrules regarding fire safety education, training, and evacuation procedures in each residence. Along with this, universities must provide statistics on fire losses for each calendaryear, as well as details on specific fire incidents.7U.S. Department of Homeland Security U.S. Fire AdministrationNational Fire Data Center Emmitsburg, Maryland 21727www.usfa.fema.gov/statistics/
TFRS Volume 12, Issue 9/University Housing Fires (2007-2009)Type of FiresPage 2that are limited in scope and confined to noncombustiblecontainers.8 Confined fires rarely result in serious injuryor large content losses, and are expected to have no significant accompanying property losses due to flame damage.9Eighty-seven percent of university housing fires are confined fires, as shown in Table 1.Building fires consist of two major categories of incidents:fires that are confined to specific types of equipment orobjects (confined fires) and those that are not (nonconfined fires). Confined building fires are small fire incidentsTable 1. University Housing Fires by Type of Incident (2007-2009)Incident TypeNonconfined FiresConfined FiresCooking fire, confined to containerChimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flueIncinerator overload or malfunction, fire containedFuel burner/boiler malfunction, fire containedCommercial compactor fire, confined to rubbishTrash or rubbish fire, containedTotal urce: NFIRS 5.0.Loss Measuresreported to NFIRS.10 The average number of deaths andinjuries per 1,000 fires, as well as dollar loss per fire, inuniversity housing are well below the same figures for residential building fires (excluding university housing fires).Table 2 presents losses, averaged over this 3-year period,for residential building fires and university housing firesTable 2. Loss Measures for University Housing Fires (3-year average, 2007-2009)MeasuresAverage Loss:Fatalities/1,000 FiresInjuries/1,000 FiresDollar Loss/FireResidential Building Fires(Excludes UniversityHousing Fires)UniversityHousing Fires5.628.7 17,0900.45.2 1,970Confined UniversityHousing Fires0.01.0 80Nonconfined UniversityHousing Fires3.134.2 15,130Source: NFIRS 5.0.Notes: 1) No deaths were reported to NFIRS in confined university housing fires during 2007–2009; the resulting loss of 0.0 fatalities per 1,000 fires reflects only data reported to NFIRS.2) Average loss for fatalities and injuries is computed per 1,000 fires; average dollar loss is computed per fire and is rounded to the nearest 10.3) When calculating the average dollar loss per fire for 2007–2009, the 2007 and 2008 dollar loss values were adjusted to their equivalent 2009 dollar loss values to account for inflation.Table 3 presents the percentage distribution of property usefor all university housing fires, confined university housing fires, and nonconfined university housing fires. Firesin dormitories and dormitory-type residences account for95 percent of all university housing fires. These fires alsoaccount for 96 percent of confined university housing firesand 87 percent of nonconfined university housing fires.While sorority and fraternity housing fires are not substantial in terms of the overall number of university housingfires, they play a bigger role in nonconfined fires. Theyaccount for 13 percent of fires in this category, while only 4percent in the confined category.Table 3. Percentage Distribution of Property Use for University Housing Fires(3-year average, 2007-2009)Property UseDormitory and Dormitory-type residenceSorority House, Fraternity HouseTotalSource: NFIRS 5.0.All UniversityHousing Fires94.95.1100.0Confined UniversityHousing Fires96.04.0100.0Nonconfined UniversityHousing Fires87.013.0100.0
TFRS Volume 12, Issue 9/University Housing Fires (2007-2009)Page 3When University Housing Fires Occur5 to 6 a.m.11 The distribution of fires by time of alarm isvery similar to that of residential fires (excluding universityhousing fires), but there tend to be more fires in universityhousing in the evening hours. This may be due to whenmost students are in their residences and cooking eveningmeals.As shown in Figure 1, university housing fires occur mainlyin the early evening hours from 5 to 10 p.m., peaking from7 to 9 p.m., and then declining throughout the evening andinto the early morning hours. The lowest point is from9.07.78.0Residential Building Fires(excluding UniversityHousing Fires)7.06.04.03.73.02.52.82.12.02.41.51.2 1.45AM-6AM4.01.08.5 8.36.75.04AM-5AMPercent of University Housing FiresFigure 1. University Housing Fires by Time of Alarm (2007–2009)2.74.5 4.6 4.4 6AM-7AM3AM-4AM2AM-3AM1AM-2AMMid-1AM0.0Time of AlarmSource: NFIRS 5.0.As shown in Figure 2, university housing fires occurmost frequently in the late summer and fall, peaking inSeptember at 12 percent. Fires in September, October, andNovember account for 33 percent of all fires throughoutthe year. This is primarily due to the fact that these monthsconstitute the beginning of the academic year for moststudents. From December to April, fires fluctuate between8 and 9 percent, accounting for 44 percent of fires forthe year. Fires decline dramatically during the summermonths, mainly because students are not in attendance atuniversities and student housing may be unoccupied. Thisis in contrast to residential building fires (excluding university housing fires), where fires occur most frequently in thewinter months and dip in the summer months.14.0Residential BuildingFires (ExcludingUniversity Housing 8.09.0June10.05.94.0Source: NFIRS 5.0.Month of March0.0February2.0JanuaryPercent of University Housing FiresFigure 2. University Housing Fires by Month (2007–2009)
TFRS Volume 12, Issue 9/University Housing Fires (2007-2009)Causes of University Housing FiresEighty-eight percent of all university housing fires are cooking fires as shown in Table 4. The next four causes accountfor 7 percent of all university housing fires: intentionallyset fires (2 percent), heating (2 percent), open flame (1 percent), and other unintentional, careless actions (1 percent).12Page 4While candle fires, a subset of open flame fires, have been amajor concern in university housing, they constitute half of1 percent of all university housing fires. This may be dueto the fact that only a small number of these fires are actually reported to NFIRS. This lack of reporting could be dueto campus regulations banning candles, combined with thelack of data from confined fires.Table 4. Leading Causes of University Housing Fires (2007-2009)CauseCookingIntentionalHeatingOpen FlameOther Unintentional, CarelessPercent (Unknowns Apportioned)87.52.21.71.31.3Source: NFIRS 5.0.Confined FiresNonconfined FiresConfined fires are allowed abbreviated NFIRS reporting andmany reporting details of the fire are not required and notreported. These fires are small in nature and often do notcause significant injury or damage. The three major areaswhere data are available—time of day, month, and cause—confined fires dominate the overall university housing fireprofile. Thirty-nine percent of confined university housingfires occur between 5 and 10 p.m., with the peak occurring between 7 and 8 p.m. Confined fires most often occurin the months of September, October, and November inthe calendar year, and then decline throughout the rest ofthe academic year, with the lowest points in June and July.Cooking is the cause of 97 percent of confined universityhousing fires, which is not surprising given that cooking isthe cause of 88 percent of all university housing fires.The next sections of this topical report address nonconfineduniversity housing fires, where detailed fire data are available, such as equipment involved in ignition, heat source,etc. While these fires are not as prevalent as confined firesin university housing, they often cause serious injury andproperty damage.Causes of Nonconfined University HousingFiresWhile cooking is the leading cause of university housingfires overall, it is only a small percentage of nonconfineduniversity housing fires (9 percent). As shown in Figure 3,the leading causes of nonconfined university fires are intentional (16 percent), other unintentional, careless actions(12 percent), open flame (11 percent), and other heat (10percent).
TFRS Volume 12, Issue 9/University Housing Fires (2007-2009)Page 5Figure 3. Causes of Nonconfined University Housing Fires (2007–2009)Intentional0.80.6Playing with Heat cal Malfunction5.94.7CausesAppliancesOpen Flame1.00.82.31.92.11.7Other EquipmentNaturalExposureEquipment Misoperation, Failure7.58.27.7Other Unintentional, Careless1.81.5Investigation with Arson ModuleUnknown0.0Percent of All NonconfinedUniversity Housing Fires9.48.6Other HeatPercent of NonconfinedUniversity Housing Fireswith Cause 0.015.0Percent of Nonconfined University Housing Fires25.0Source: NFIRS 5.0.Note: Causes are listed in order of the USFA Cause Hierarchy for ease of comparison of fire causes across different aspects of the fire problem. Fires are assigned to 1 of 16 causegroupings using a hierarchy of definitions, approximately as shown in the chart above. A fire is included in the highest category into which it fits. If it does not fit the top category,then the second one is considered, and if not that one, the third, and so on. For example, if the fire is judged to be intentionally set and a match was used to ignite it, it is classifiedas intentional and not open flame because intentional is higher in the hierarchy.Where Nonconfined University HousingFires Start (Area of Fire Origin)Nonconfined university housing fires occur in a variety ofareas, but most start in either the kitchen or cooking area(24 percent) or the bedroom (18 percent). Fires that start inlaundry areas (7 percent), bathrooms (7 percent), hallwaysand corridors (4 percent), and common rooms or dens (4percent) make up an additional 22 percent of nonconfinedfires (Table 5).Table 5. Leading Areas of Fire Origin in Nonconfined University Housing Fires (2007-2009)Area of OriginCooking Area, KitchenBedroomsLaundry AreaBathroomHallway CorridorCommon Room, DenPercent (Unknowns Apportioned)24.318.47.26.84.13.5Source: NFIRS 5.0.For intentionally-set nonconfined fires, 19 percent are set inthe hallways or corridors of the building, while 17 percentare first set in the bedroom. Intentionally-set nonconfinedfires also occur in bathrooms (10 percent), the egress or exitareas of buildings (8 percent), common rooms or dens (5percent), and kitchens (5 percent).The second leading cause of nonconfined university housing fires is other unintentional or careless actions, wherethe majority of these fires start in the kitchen or cookingarea (44 percent). Fires in the bedroom account for anadditional 24 percent of nonconfined other unintentionalfires.
TFRS Volume 12, Issue 9/University Housing Fires (2007-2009)Page 6equipment accounts for 51 percent of nonconfined university housing fires. This category includes heat from otheroperating equipment, which accounts for 19 percent of allnonconfined university housing fires, as well as radiated orconducted heat from operating equipment, which comprises 18 percent of these fires. The second-leading heatsource category is heat from open flame or smoking materials, which totals 25 percent of nonconfined universityhousing fires. This category includes such heat sources ascandles, cigarettes, lighters, and matches. The third largestcategory for heat source is hot or smoldering objects. Thiscategory can include such heat sources as hot ash or embersfrom fireplaces and heat sparked from friction, and accountsfor 13 percent of these fires.Fires involving open flame in bedrooms account for 34percent of the total of all nonconfined university housingopen-flame fires. Open-flame fires also start in the kitchenor cooking area (14 percent) and the bathroom (8 percent),totaling 22 percent.The majority of nonconfined university housing fires wherethe cause is “other heat” start mainly in the bedroom (22percent) or the cooking area/kitchen (22 percent). Otherheat fires also start in the laundry area (6 percent) and onthe exterior roof (6 percent).How Nonconfined University Housing FiresStart (Heat Source)The heat source categories for nonconfined universityhousing fires are shown in Figure 4. Heat from operatingFigure 4. Sources of Heat in Nonconfined University Housing Fires by Major Category(2007–2009)Operating Equipment38.824.7Heat from Open Flame or Smoking Materials18.9Hot or Smoldering Object9.512.56.55.0Other Heat SourceHeat Spread from Another Fire2.41.9Chemicals, Natural Heat Sources1.81.3Explosives, Fireworks1.20.9Multiple Heat Sources50.7Percent of NonconfinedUniversity Housing Fireswith Heat SourceDeterminedPercent of All NonconfinedUniversity Housing Percent of Nonconfined University Housing Fires60.0Source: NFIRS 5.0.Of the causes for nonconfined university housing fires, 39percent specifically involve equipment of some fashion.13 Inthese cases, the leading heat source is heat from operatingequipment, accounting for 84 percent of these fires. Of the24 percent of fires that start in the cooking area or kitchen(Table 5), 31 percent of these fires are started by heat frompowered equipment, 30 percent are started by radiated orconducted heat from operating equipment, and 6 percentare started by a spark, ember, or flame from operatingequipment.As shown in Table 5, 18 percent of nonconfined university housing fires start in the bedroom. Of these fires, 11percent are started by heat from operating equipment, 17percent are started by radiated or conducted heat fromoperating equipment, and 8 percent are started by electrical arcing. Although candles are strictly prohibited inresidences by many schools, they still make up 14 percentof nonconfined university housing fires that start in thebedroom.
TFRS Volume 12, Issue 9/University Housing Fires (2007-2009)Fire Spread in Nonconfined UniversityHousingFire spread in nonconfined university housing is generallycontained to the object of origin (43 percent), or to theroom of origin (41 percent), as shown in Figure 5. WhenPage 7these statistics are combined with the implied fire spreadfor confined fires (that is, confined fires are implied to beconfined to the object of origin), 92 percent of all university housing fires are found to be confined to the object oforigin.Figure 5. Extent of Fire Spread in Nonconfined University Housing Fires (2007–2009)Confined to object of origin43.0Confined to room of origin40.7Confined to floor of origin5.4Confined to building of originBeyond building of origin8.52.40.010.020.030.040.0Percent of Nonconfined University Housing Fires50.0Source: NFIRS 5.0.Factors Contributing to IgnitionTable 6 shows the leading factors contributing to ignitionof nonconfined university housing fires. Abandoned ordiscarded materials or products were the leading factorscontributing to ignition at 15 percent, with placing a heatsource too close to combustibles at 14 percent. These twofactors, coupled with a general misuse of material or products at 12 percent, accounted for 40 percent of all nonconfined university housing fires.14 Equipment left unattendedwas a factor contributing to ignition in an additional 10percent of the nonconfined university housing fires.Table 6. Leading Factors Contributing to Ignition for Nonconfined University Housing Fires(Where Factor Contributing Specified, 2007-2009)Factors
TFRS Volume 12, Issue 9/University Housing Fires (2007-2009) Page 2. Type of Fires. Building fires consist of two major categories of incidents: fires that are confined to specific types of equipment or objects (confined fires) and those that are not (noncon-fined fires). Confined building fires are small fire incidents
These include confined cooking fires, confined chimney or flue fires, confined trash fires, confined fuel burner or boiler fires, confined commercial compactor fires, and confined incinerator fires (incident type 113-118). Losses are generally minimal in these fires, which are assumed to have been limited to the object of origin.
large loss building fires were defined as fires that resulted in a total dollar loss of 1 million or more. 4. Even though large loss fires made up less than 1 percent of all building fires from 2007 to 2009, they accounted for 26 percent of all building fire dollar loss during the 3-year period. These fires, though small in number, caused a large
The three leading causes of school building fires were cooking (42 percent), . TFRS Volume 14, Issue 14/School Building Fires (2009-2011) Page 2. School Fires by General Property Type. . years 2009-2011 were January and March (10 percent each),
Number of housing units (weighted average of 1999 7.1a 73.7–82.0b and 2001, in millions) Civilian deaths per 100 fires 1.7 0.8 Civilian injuries per 100 fires 3.9 3.8 Fires per 1,000 housing units 2.0 3.2–3.5 Civilian deaths per 100,000 housing units 3.3 2.7–3.0 Civilian injuries per 100,000 housing units 7.7 12.2–13.5
present in 45 percent of reported nonconfined fires in occupied hotels and motels. In 1980, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) estimated that 12,200 fires occurred in hotels and motels. The estimated numbers of fires in hotels and motels has sharply declined since then. Deaths and injuries resulting from these fires has also declined.
The estimated number of fires in structures under construction has increased since 2014 after declining between 2008 and 2010. Three of every four fires in structures under construction involved residential properties. Cooking equipment is the leading cause of fires on construction sites. These fires tend to be minor.
ii) Welding, cutting, soldering operations with arc or gas in u/g may result the mine fires. iii) Static or Frictional electricity, may result fires. iv) Friction of belts against pulleys produces sparks. v) Goaf fires may originate due to ignition of coal dust. 8.2.2.2 (ii) Preventive Measures of Fires:
Introduction to Phonetics for Students of English, French, German and Spanish This Introduction to Phonetics was originally a booklet produced in the School of Modern Languages at the University of Southampton, to serve as a background and further reading text for the Articulatory Phonetics component of our first-year Linguistics unit. It focuses on the structure and linguistic function of .
